John Cram

1940 - 2017

John Cram

Fredonia, Arizona

Milton John Cram passed away and returned to his Father in Heaven on June 21, 2017. John was born in Kanab, Utah on July 14, 1940 to Evelyn Martine Jensen and Milton B. Cram. He was raised in Fredonia, Arizona. He married Anna Lou Hepworth of Orderville, Utah on March 9, 1963. They were later sealed in the Manti temple on December 28, 1976. John and Anna had six children, Hallie Cram, Corey Cram (Nancy), Cara Brown, Truly Bone, Richard Cram (Amanda), and Evan Cram (Sheena). Family was everything to John and Anna and they worked hard to teach their kids and raise them to know what was right.

John enjoyed making sand buggies which started out as chopped car frames and eventually he made specialized buggies for climbing the steepest sand dunes. He organized and sponsored meets at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes and he worked to keep the sand dunes open for public use. He had the first buggy to climb Big Sand Mountain near Delta, Utah. He was proud that he could make sand buggies from junk parts that could compete with buggies that cost thousands of dollars. He enjoyed guns and taught himself reloading. He enjoyed learning about guns and shooting. He bought a 44 revolver as a young man and enjoyed shooting it and many different hunting rifles and other pistols through the years.

John worked for the 'highway department' maintaining roads and plowing snow on the Kaibab in the winter. He left that job and went to school at what was then the College of Southern Utah, now Southern Utah University, majoring in industrial arts. He excelled in his classes and focused in metal working. He got great grades and said classmates referred to him as a DAR ('dang' average raiser). Classmates were pleased when he attended a woodworking class thinking that they could best him, but John came through and again got the top grade in the class. He was employed at Fredonia High School teaching automotive mechanics and welding. He retired in 2006 after teaching vocational and life skills to hundreds of students. He also taught night welding classes for adults including many Kaibab sawmill employees.

John was very gifted and talented and excelled at working with his hands. He became interested in the art and skills of blacksmithing, forging iron to make tools and implements. He learned from his father-in-law Keith Hepworth who had learned from his father Ted Hepworth, the last practicing blacksmith in Kane County. John enjoyed learning skills and keeping the tradition alive in the family. He learned how to shrink wagon wheels and helped Keith prepare wagons for use on the Honeymoon Trail and other things. John enjoyed sharing insights about blacksmithing to others and demonstrated the trade at Pipe Spring, the Shakespearean Festival, the Festival of the American West, the Scandinavian Festival, and every year at Kanab's Western Legend's Festival.

He served in scouting and in numerous church callings with teaching primary with Anna being one of his favorite. John loved being outdoors and any opportunity to get out in the hills and get red dirt between his toes. John was a very caring person and didn't hesitate to reach out to people. He appreciated his heritage and wanted future generations to appreciate their past. Recently he wrote family histories for the families of his grandparents and Anna's grandparents. He was preceded in death by his parents and Richard and Amanda's daughter Jane Ruth. He is survived by his wife Anna, his six children, and ten grandchildren. In 2014, John and Anna celebrated their golden anniversary. They celebrated a total of 53 years together. He was a very devoted husband and father and always showed caring love to his sweet wife, kids and grandkids. His legacy of love, kindness, service and skills will go forward.

Funeral services will be held Friday, June 30, 2017 at 11:00 AM (AZ Time) in the Fredonia Arizona LDS Church, where friends may come to visit with the family starting at 10:00 AM (AZ Time). A family interment service will be held Thursday morning in the Orderville Cemetery. Arrangements were made with Mosdell Mortuary.